Simply, Powerful Message - Zechariah 1-7

Zechariah 7:11-14 (ESV)

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.”

The entire book of Zechariah is a motivational book sent by God, written through the hands of the prophet, to encourage and inspire the nation to continue to build the Temple ... but with a pure heart.  In the first seven chapters there are nine motivational tools employed to move the nation to continue to build both heart and Temple.   Ezra came back from the exile to collect the people together to build the Temple.  Zechariah was sent by God to rebuild the collective hearts of the people.  In the above passage we see one of his final arguments for them to build.  Their ancestors had not listened to God’s Word.  Zechariah is reminding them of what happens when you refuse to obey God.   The reason for their previous captivity was that they had turned their hearts “diamond-hard.”   Therefore God turned His heart equally hard against them.   God wanted them to see that the reason that the land was desolate and unpleasant was because they had refused to listen to God in the past.  The take-a-way point for them is to NOT repeat that same hardness of heart.   Their fathers had rejected the prophets of God and the message they carried from and for God.  Zechariah is reminding them to NOT do that again.  Failure to listen to God with a diamond-hard heart is the certain path to discipline and, eventually, destruction.  There is no secret message here.  That is the basic truth of God’s Word.   Disobey God and you will for certain, at some point, be disciplined and/or destroyed by God.  Obey God and He will, eventually, bless you.  That is the message of Zechariah.  That is the message of the Bile.  Obedience leads to blessing.  Disobedience leads to cursing.